Five Reasons to Love Vampire Bats

Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that a 19-year-old man died of rabies he had contracted from a vampire bat, making it the first documented case of rabies from this animal in the U.S. Actually, the migrant worker was bitten in his native Mexico, about 10 days before traveling to a sugar cane plantation in Louisiana to work, according to a CDC investigation following his death on August 21, 2010.Subsequent news reports suggested that vampire bats are moving into the U.S. and constitute a significant threat to people. In fact, neither statement is true. And while vampire bats aren't to be taken lightly, there are plenty of reasons to admire them, including complex social networks, deadly hunting skills and naturally producing chemicals that could become valuable human drugs. Not bad for a bunch of blood suckers.

They Could Be the Key to New Drugs

They Could Be the Key to New Drugs

Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that a 19-year-old man died of rabies he had contracted from a vampire bat, making it the first documented case of rabies from this animal in the U.S. Actually, the migrant worker was bitten in his native Mexico, about 10 days before traveling to a sugar cane plantation in Louisiana to work, according to a CDC investigation following his death on August 21, 2010.

Subsequent news reports suggested that vampire bats are moving into the U.S. and constitute a significant threat to people. In fact, neither statement is true. And while vampire bats aren't to be taken lightly, there are plenty of reasons to admire them, including complex social networks, deadly hunting skills and naturally producing chemicals that could become valuable human drugs. Not bad for a bunch of blood suckers.

They Don't Live in the United States—Yet

They Don't Live in the United States—Yet

Let's just get this one out of the way. Vampire bats are amazing creatures, for reasons to be explained soon. And they are responsible for very few rabies cases in humans.

But as last week's case reinforces, vampire bats can indeed carry the disease, and they aren't to be taken lightly. So perhaps they're best admired from afar, and Americans get to do just that. Bill Schutt, a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History who has studied the animals extensively, says vampire bats don't live in the U.S. and aren't expected to any time soon. While the CDC report correctly states that the animal's range could be expanding, Schutt says, he disagrees with the suggestions that this will happen in the near future. The research the report cites relies on a theoretical model of vampire bat habitat that hasn't been thoroughly tested, he says, and pertains to climate changes predicted to take place over many decades.

For now, the northernmost extent of vampire bats' range is about 100 miles south of Texas, though most live much farther south, says Shahroukh Mistry, a bat researcher at Butte College in California. Their range extends southward through Central and South America and two Caribbean islands. The unlucky rabies victim who died in Louisiana was bitten in Michoacán, Mexico—about 500 miles southwest of Texas.

(A note about rabies: Worldwide, rabid dogs are by far the largest source of the virus, especially in developing countries. In the U.S., thanks to the aggressive vaccination of pets such as dogs, non–vampire bats have become the largest source of rabies. But only a total of 32 cases have been reported in the past decade, and one-quarter of those were from exposure abroad. Daniel Streicker, a doctoral student at the University of Georgia who studies rabies in bats, says that most people who get rabies from (non–vampire) bats pick up sick animals lying on the ground. That's a bad idea, he says, and anybody who may have been bitten by a bat should seek medical attention. If treated early, rabies can be cured. But once symptoms appear, it's too late.)